Reviews

35 B-sides and rarities, with two unreleased tracks, on two CDs

Anthologising nearly-lost gems from Lora Logic's arty post-punk outfit

Sumptuous theatrical tale from Japan

OPENS AUGUST 22, CERT 15, 102 MINS An uptight, emotionally constrained English lady crime-writer and a sexually aggressive Provençal bombshell, given to walking around butt naked: in his latest movie, François Ozon deals in archetypes. But having created characters who border on cliché, he then proceeds to subvert them by adding other, unexpected layers to their personalities.

Robert Aldrich's blazing adaptation of Mickey Spillane's gut-wrenching nuclear age potboiler turns a well-worn genre on its head and retains its power to shock almost 50 years after it was made. Ralph Meeker yells his way through this movie as the quintessential Mike Hammer: loud, boorish, sexist, bullying and gleefully violent. Watch out for the back-to-front titles and apocalyptic climax. Truly the greatest private-eye movie ever made.

Though opening with a rocking Trainspotting-style intro and plenty of Tarantino-type cult film buffery, Bleeder gradually morphs into a truly horrifying psychodrama. Kim Bodnia delivers a stunning performance as reluctant dad-to-be Leo whose frustration begins a cycle of sickening abuse and ingeniously cruel revenge on the grim and seedy streets of Denmark.

Two-CD collection of funk and chill-out

Business as usual for Ohio institutions

Free mini poster! More blockbusting belligerence from Kermit's overweight and moody second cousin, or at least from the film with the most laughably dodgy CGI in cinematic history. Has nobody the courage to tell Ang Lee to stick to melodramas where drippy women in bonnets pine for Hugh Grant or Sigourney Weaver plays a '70s swinger? Danny Elfman, colossal hack of multiplex scores, dresses this beast, with Natacha Atlas cameo-ing, while the finale, "Set Me Free", is performed by Scott Weiland, Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner.

Long-awaited follow-up to H.M.S. Fable delivers